Is It Worth It?

So I have a little quandry...

I really want to go see this:


But if I truly want to see it, I'll have to endure this:


And the only way to truly survive such crazy, rabid, teenage girls full of angst is to take plenty of these:


And drink lots of this:


Something tells me that I should just avoid the mob scene and wait for this on Netflix...

Sunbathing Beauty

Alexandra enjoyed playing in both her water table and a friend's pool this weekend (well, maybe I should say AROUND the pool, she wasn't so crazy about getting IN the pool).

Seriously, I could just eat her up, she's so cute - especially those little thighs!

Good Hair Days: 1, Humidity: 0

Let's face it - humidity is the foe of any woman in the South.

If you live in the north, I can assure you that you have never experienced the true heat of summer until you have lived one in the South. Humidity hangs heavy in the air, and slaps you in the face the minute you walk out the door. You literally feel as if you could cut the air with a huge butcher knife.

Humidity wreaks havoc on hair more than anything else. If you have curly hair, it goes limp and straight. If you wear your hair straight, it frizzes up and becomes curly (and not in a good-Gisele-Bundchen-beachy-waves kind of way, but in a bad-80s-perm kind of way).

Like most others, my hair is generally claimed victim by the intense summer humidity. If I smooth it out with a straightening iron, it frizzes and kinks up. Forget about wearing it curly, the curls fall flat within 10 seconds of walking outside. I give you Exhibit A...the top picture shows you what my hair looks like when I wear it curly (which is also how I styled it for a wedding in Hilton Head last October). The bottom picture depicts my hair at said wedding, after being exposed to humidity for about 10 minutes. Not a pretty sight, huh? I have two words for you...

HOT MESS.



I give you all that background so you can see why I chalked up styling my hair in the summer as a lost cause. Then I decided to try Moroccan Hair Oil, which seems to be featured EVERYWHERE right now. I figured I had tried everything else, so why the hell not try this stuff. I have to tell you, it is AMAZING - one use of this stuff and I was wondering where it had been all of my life. It makes your hair very soft and shiny, and smells incredible. The best part? Humidity doesn't appear to be an issue anymore! I wore this stuff every day while we were in Hilton Head last week, and my hair stayed smooth and in place, no frizz to be seen. If you have not tried this stuff - run, don't walk, to your computer and order some pronto. I found mine at a local salon, but if you go here, you can find where you can order it online or check to see if any of your local retailers carry it.

Chalking this up to one more battle won in the war against humidity and its control on hair!

Going to Carolina in My Mind

I want to extend a very belated THANK YOU to all of you for your well wishes following my hospital stay! I'm happy to report that all seems to be well with my health, and hopefully it will stay that way - I appreciate all of your concern and prayers.

Thanks also for all of the birthday wishes! :) My 32nd birthday was relatively quiet, and I like it that way! I spent the day at work - my boss made the most DIVINE cheesecake brownies EVER (I might have eaten one with a Diet Coke when I got into the office this morning...breakfast of champions, I tell ya). The lovely ladies at the office gave me a gift certificate for a spa day (Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!). Unfortunately, Ryan was out of town in Chicago for my birthday but called and texted me throughout the day to wish me a wonderful day. My parents and my sweet sister, Rachel (who happened to be in from Boston), came to our house and we had take-out from Outback, followed by cupcakes. At one point in the evening after my parents had gone home, I thought the dog was being a little too quiet, which meant she was up to no good. Upon entering the kitchen, I found that she had scarfed down 3 CUPCAKES, wrapper and all - she tried to look innocent, but the yellow icing all over her mouth gave her away.


As you can tell, the little one REALLY enjoyed her cupcake - that's purple icing all over her lips, not some atrocious hot pink frosted lipstick from the 80s. I took the picture with my birthday present from my parents, a new camera lens - the Canon 85 mm f/1.8. My heart just skipped a beat thinking of all the fun I'm going to have with this lens (I know, I probably lost many of you all just now by talking about how excited I am over a camera lens!).

So......we had a wonderful time in Hilton Head Island (despite the fact that I got a wee bit of sun poisoning as the heavy-duty antibiotics made my skin so sensitive to the sun beating down on us). We ate lots of phenomenal seafood from here, here and here. We spent a lot of time out by the pool, where I finished lots of indulgent fashion magazines and started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Have any of you all read this? It's a little slow going right now, I'm still in the beginning chapters - but everywhere I turn I hear how phenomenal this series is.

I really did try to take some pictures walking along the beach in the morning, but the moment I would take the lens cap off, it would immediately fog up - any of you photographers out there have any advice for this? I was able to take a bunch of pictures at Harbour Town, where I spent an afternoon relaxing and shopping while Ryan was out playing golf.






On Saturday night, we attended the beautiful wedding of our friends Sarah and Clay, which took place on the beach. They invited 36 friends and family to their wedding, and all 36 came, which I believe is a true testament to how much they are loved. We had such a wonderful time and wouldn't have missed it for the world. It was a fun, laid-back affair full of love and laughter. It was such a pretty wedding, and Sarah was one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen.





I rarely seem to be in front of the camera anymore - not only am I usually busy taking pictures, but my DSLR seems to unnerve people a little bit and I usually have it in Manual setting which makes it a little bit more difficult to operate. Some sweet friends offered to take our picture - this is the best one of the two of us.


The focus on these photos tends to be a little interesting - this next one just cracks me up!


We had a wonderful time, but I was ready to get back on the plane Sunday morning. It is good for us to get away as a couple sometimes, but it was hard to be away from my sweet Alexandra for several days in a row. I practically ran into the house to see her when we got home. A huge smile crossed her face and she reached up her arms to be picked up - when I did, she wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my back as tight as she could and just squeezed. We stood like that for about five minutes, just hugging tightly. Alexandra kept giggling, she was so happy - it was one of my favorite moments EVER.

I'm STILL catching up on all of your blog posts that I missed since my hospitalization and vacation, and am working on responding to comments - thanks for your patience! :)

32

32 years of living.

32 years of laughter, tears, joy and sorrow, all happily co-mingled.


32 years of incredible memories.

32 years of happiness.


32 years of life is what I celebrate tomorrow, June 22.

There won't be much fanfare - a day spent in a deposition, dinner at home with my family, maybe a sweet treat making an appearance (hopefully). While 32 is not a milestone birthday, such as 16, 18 or 21, it is a day to take stock of all of the wonderful blessings in my life, to express thanks to God, and to look forward with great anticipation to the next 32 years.

Oh, and also hoping against all hope that one day I get to celebrate with my fellow birthday girl...


Sharing a birthday with MERYL is not too shabby!

Ugh...

That one little word is a pretty good description for how I feel right now...

Started having abdominal pains on Friday - when they hadn't improved by the time I left my hair appointment on Saturday (hey, a girl has to get her roots taken care of in a timely manner, okay?), I drove myself to one of the local immediate care centers. Immediately upon examining my stomach, the physician sent me to the ER for suspected appendicitis.

My trip to the ER on Saturday afternoon turned into a 48 hour stay in the hospital, during which I watched SIX movies (this is a great new hospital with internet access and lots of movie selections on the flat screen TV in every patient room) and finished The Time Traveler's Wife (I'm so glad I picked up this book again, SO good!).

Thankfully, appendicitis was ruled out and I was released home this afternoon with no restrictions but instructions to follow up with the consulting physician from the hospital next week.

Glad everything was okay, but this was frustrating, to be sure. One, I never, EVER get sick. Two, I hate being away from Alexandra for so long and I found myself in tears late Sunday night, just wanting to be home with my family. Talk about a pity party!

I share this just so you know why I'm so behind on posting and responding to comments. Also, I'm leaving the middle of this week to head to Hilton Head Island for our friends' wedding so that will obviously limit my ability to blog.

Just be patient with me, I promise I'll be back in full force next week! Until then...

Odds and Ends

Here's just a smattering of random thoughts for you...


The partners at work treated everyone in the firm to "Legally Blonde - The Musical." How fitting that a law office full of women who love both the law and fashion should go see this incredible musical together!


LOVED it, just a fantastic play! The songs were very catchy, and one in particular called "Omigod" has been in my mind ever since. It's funny, because Alexandra has recently started saying her own version of OMG, which comes out as "oh my goosness" - yes, goosness not goodness. We have no idea where she picked it up (oh, who am i kidding, probably her mother who tends to say this a lot and be a bit of a drama queen), but it's so cute!


I finally crawled out from underneath a rock and decided to catch up this summer on the first two seasons of Glee since I don't know a soul who doesn't love this show. Luckily, Fox is replaying the first season from beginning to end this summer and I caught the first show tonight. Safe to say I am officially hooked!

Ryan and I are gearing up for a trip to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for a friend's wedding. We've been to HHI a few different times now and just love it, so we are happy to be going back for such a happy occasion.


I'm already plotting out which books I want to take. Based upon all of your fantastic comments regarding The Time Traveler's Wife, I have picked it back up. I'll also probably re-read Eclipse since the movie is coming out in a couple of weeks. Yes, I admit it - I am Sara, I am 32, I am a professional working woman (and not a teen), and I LOVE Twilight. I was late to the game in reading the series until my sister pointed out the error of my ways and convinced me to read Twilight - once I was finished with it, there was no turning back!


Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Swagger

Thanks to everyone for all of the positive feedback on my pictures from the I Heart Faces photo walk - ya'll are so sweet!

I always swore up and down when I was younger that I would never drive a mini-van once I had kids. No offense to those of you who drive and love your mini-vans...I just didn't think it was for me. I still don't.

Despite my initial misgivings about the mini-van, we do have one in our garage! Ryan's company car from his last employer was a van; when he left that job, he was given the option of purchasing the van, which we decided to do since it was a great price. This van is not like a lot of vans you see on the market today with all of their bells and whistles (some of these are pretty luxurious!), but it runs well and gets us from point A to point B. And I begrudgingly must admit, it's so much easier to get Alexandra in and out of the van! I don't drive the van very often, but I do take it on occasion when I have to make a short road trip for work, like today. As I drove down the road on my way to work this morning, I couldn't help but giggle thinking about the commercial for the "Swagger Wagon". Have you seen this video on You Tube? It's the "music video" for the Toyota Sienna and, as the mother of a young child, I find it freaking hysterical (whether you do or don't like the mini-van!).

Come Walk With Me...

Hi all! Hope you had a wonderful weekend, and if you live in the humid south, that you were able to have some escape from the heat and humidity! I had an opportunity this weekend to do something very cool. Somewhere in the past year or so, I have fallen in love with photography - this was about when I got my Canon Rebel, my first DSLR. Before then, I had always used my little point and shoot, which was alright but I was not able to document with clarity all of those important "firsts" Alexandra was experiencing (sitting, standing, crawling, etc.). My early Christmas present from my parents was the Canon Rebel XS and I have loved it ever since - I think I have used my point and shoot only once in the past year!

Of course, I've never sat down and read my camera manual cover to cover (might as well be in Latin!) and I have never taken a photography class...I just keep taking tons of pictures in the hopes that my photography skills will improve! This Saturday, I got to attend a Photo Walk of Louisville sponsored by I Heart Faces. IHF is a blog run by two women who share a passion for photography. In twenty or so cities across the country this weekend, groups of photographers, both amateur and pro, assembled for "photo walks" of their respective cities. I signed up and really enjoyed it - though at times I felt like such a novice when I surveyed the very impressive camera bodies and lenses being used at the walk!

I'd like to take you on a little walk of my own city - Louisville...

(Sorry in advance for the multitude of pictures!)


A pair of very sweet girls were our models for the day - they were great, and up for anything as you will see in the last picture!






We were joined by lions, and tigers, and bears - oh my! Well, no, not really - though there were lions (outside of Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse)...


Horses (of course, this is Kentucky, after all!)...



Penguins (outside of the very modern 21C Museum Hotel)...


...and even a bejeweled sea serpent...


I loved all of the architectural details I spotted as I walked down Main Street...








Lots of bars, restaurants, and other cool signage...





Our photo walk began at 9 am...toward the end of the walk at 11:30 a.m., the sun was beating down upon us in earnest. Obviously, these children enjoyed cooling off in the fountains at River Park near Louisville Slugger Field.





I hope you've enjoyed your little "tour" of downtown Louisville (and thanks for following along with this post in spite of the vast number of pictures!).